The 56 industry experts polled by Finder saw a slow return to 2021's exuberant bull market, with the all-time of $68,000 not beaten until late 2025.
A survey of more than 50 crypto analysts predicted that Bitcoin will just barely break $29,000 in 2023 —and will not regain its all-time high of early $68,789 until 2025.
So says a panel of experts polled by Finder.com, which came up with those numbers by looking at the average peak price predictions of its 56 panelists. They also predicted a low of $13,000 this year.
"BTC will predominantly be range-bound throughout most of 2023," said Vetle Lunde, a senior analyst at investment firm Arcane Crypto. He predicts:
"Higher costs of living and a challenging economic backdrop [will] reduce investors' ability to allocate capital to BTC."
Bitcoin ATM provider CoinFlip's chairman, Daniel Polotsky, said "we may be close to the Bitcoin and crypto bottom," adding, "now may be a good time to feast on the dip."
Mild Enthusiasm, Mostly
CNBC found a far wider range of opinions shortly after New Year, with analysts at Standard Chartered bank saying that $5,000 is a possibility, although not a likely one, in its annual list of potential financial market "surprises."
On the other hand, the ever-exuberant billionaire and Bitcoin bull Tim Draper, a storied venture capitalist dating to the internet boom of 2000, predicted $250,000 by the end of the year.
Finder's experts, on the other hand, came up with Bitcoin reaching $188,000 no sooner than 2030.
Half said it is time to hold Bitcoin and two-thirds called it underpriced.
Three-quarters predicted that the vital institutional investor sector will not abandon Bitcoin in the wake of a series of scandals and collapses including the UST stablecoin, hedge fund Three Arrows Capital, a host of crypto lender bankruptcies, and the implosion of crypto exchange FTX in what federal prosecutors have called a welter of fraud and theft.
On the other hand, more than 20% said they do see large institutional investors abandoning Bitcoin and crypto.